Optical mark reading (OMR) systems are well known in the prior art, and there are many applications for the use of OMR scannable in the large-scale gathering of information (e.g. student test scores, census information, consumer preference surveys or product survey forms). Typically, OMR systems have used a variety of preprinted scannable forms comprised of sheets of paper or other similar material that have a plurality of preprinted timing marks in a control mark column (often referred to as a timing track) and a plurality of response areas (often referred to as response bubbles) located on the sheet in a specified relationship with the timing marks. The timing marks are used to trigger the OMR system to scan or "read" the response area to detect whether a data mark is present at a particular response area.
OMR systems are well-suited for gathering information from a large number of documents containing data that can be stated numerically or categorically (i.e., multiple choice, yes or no). In a typical market survey application, a person would fill in the requested information on a scannable form by placing a data mark in the desired response areas. When completed, the scannable form is then fed into an OMR scanner that reads the data marks and transmits this data to a computer for editing, validation, and, ultimately, interpretation. While such OMR systems are an efficient means of gathering large amounts of information, it is generally not cost-effective to use current scannable forms with an OMR system to gather relatively small amounts of information (i.e. 5,000 surveys or less), particularly when the turn-around time for conducting a survey is limited or when a scannable form must be custom-designed for a survey.
The scannable forms for OMR systems of the type described above are either fixed format scannable forms having only response areas and no corresponding questions printed on the form (e.g., 50 true/false response areas), or custom scannable forms with specific questions (or other stimulus items, such as graphics) printed corresponding to each response area (e.g., a census survey). Fixed format scannable forms are inexpensive, but are limited in arrangement and require another document or a survey administrator to pose the questions, because fixed format scannable forms do not combine both the question and response area on a single document. Custom scannable forms are more flexible in their format, but are expensive and may require as many as 5,000 copies of the same form to be printed before the costs involved in designing and printing the forms by conventional offset printing methods are recovered. More importantly, the time required to print customized scannable forms by conventional offset printing methods is sometimes too long (requiring one to eight weeks from initial design to final printing), and does not meet the market needs of many potential OMR users, particularly when there is a shortened time requirement, as is often the case in market survey applications.
One of the difficulties in creating a customized scannable form for use in current OMR scanners is the low tolerance such scanners have for offset, misregistration, and poor print or paper quality. In particular, the timing tracks on scannable forms for such scanners must be printed to high standards of print quality and print alignment to insure that an acceptably high percentage of completed forms can later be properly scanned and scored. Current OMR scanners use the timing marks in the timing track to trigger when to scan the corresponding row of response areas in the response area. Consequently, if the response areas are not printed in relatively exact alignment with the corresponding timing mark, the OMR scanner may interpret the edge of a response area as a positive response or mark, rather than as a guide for the user filling in the data mark.
It would be desirable to allow an OMR user to custom design a survey form without the need to use conventional offset printing and design methods and without the limitations imposed by a fixed format scannable form. One example of a fixed format OMR system that permits limited customization of scannable forms is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,325. In this system, a format control sheet is used to custom control the scoring of a fixed format scannable form. That is, the format control sheet to select and group certain pre-printed response areas to be scored according to a predetermined format. This system does not allow for the use of custom text or stimuli to be printed on the scannable form. Moreover, it provides for only minimal flexibility and requires the user to learn another "language" to program the format control sheet.
Another possible solution is to create a customized survey form using currently available laser printers with, for example, standard paint and draw software programs (e.g., MacDraw). In general, however, such systems cannot replicate the print quality and alignment for the timing tracks required by current OMR scanners. Even if a blank scannable form having only a preprinted timing track were used as the paper stock for a laser printer, there is no way of establishing accurate alignment between the preprinted timing track on such a form and the corresponding rows of response areas to be printed by the laser printer.
Presently, there is no single system for creating and scanning a customized survey form that effectively allows all of the information generated during the design of the survey form to be used in scanning the survey form. For example, if a change in a customized survey form is made that would require a different scanning of the information being collected, there is no means for distinguishing that change during the eventual scanning of the forms because the scanning system is separate and distinct from the system that created the survey form. Also, it would be advantageous to allow the user to directly transfer details about all of the possible information being collected so that when the survey forms are scanned, this information does not have to be reentered into the scanning system. Currently, scanning systems require that the horizontal and vertical locations of response areas to be scanned and the information about the type of fields being scanned be manually entered or keyed into the system before a new survey form can be scanned. This process is duplication of effort and allows for errors and inaccuracies to be entered into the scanning system that may result in inaccurate scoring of the information on the survey form.
Although the existing OMR scanners and scannable forms may be satisfactory for other uses and applications, because of the problems recited above they are not well-suited for quickly gathering and analyzing information from a relatively small sample population by means of a customized survey form. Accordingly, there is a continuing need for a method and system to allow for the timely and cost-effective creation of customized scannable forms or survey forms that will be consistently and correctly scanned by current OMR systems. Moreover, there would be many advantages to a method and system for creating and scanning a customized survey form that integrates both the creation and the scanning of a customized survey form into a single, unified process.